Quote Originally Posted by flabort View Post
I've never heard of Ars Magica, but it sounds like words and phrases can be swapped around easily to create fun new spells.

"Ball of abysmal flame"?
I'm making several assumptions, like that the system has certain words, and that "abysmal" and "flame" are seperated (as adjectives), but what would happen if you swapped:
"Abysmal" for "radiant", or "torrential"
"Flame" for "ice" or "Electricity"
"ball" for "beam" or "aura"

JFF, give me a mechanical summary of each of the 27 possible combinations of the above, if they would work at all.
You are completely wrong.

I'm home now, so I've got some more references to play with.

"Ball of Abyssmal Flame" is a Creo ("I create") Ignem ("Fire") spell of level 35. You could call it Ball of Cheery Flame Pookies and, if designed the way it is, it will do what it does... the name is description, and "Abyssmal" is the word chosen by whichever magus made it in the last 500 years or so (the Order of Hermes having been founded in the 8th century, and "current year" being in the 13th).

Ars Magica uses, for its core magic system, a Verb Noun system, with five verbs and ten nouns. The verbs are Creo (I create; also includes repairing), Intellego (I perceive), Muto (I transform), Perdo (I destroy) and Rego (I control). The nouns are Animal (animals and animal parts), Aquam (water), Auram (air), Corpus (human bodies and things shaped like them), Herbam (plants), Ignem (fire, light, heat and cold), Imaginem (images; illusions and invisibility), Mentem (mind), Terram (earth, metals and, to a lesser extent, all solids) and Vim (power; metamagic, effecting demons).

Healing, for example, is Creo Corpus is used to heal people. Creo Imaginem will create sensory impressions. Rego Mentem can control people's minds.

Now, if you wanted to create a snow and ice storm (your Ice effect), you'd probably use Creo Auram (since snow comes from the air), though you might use Rego Aquam (with a Muto and Terram requisite) to turn a nearby body of water into shards of thrown ice... though, at that point, you could just go with Rego Terram (with a Muto requisite) to turn a chunk of ground into shards of razor-sharp earth that explode upward. For lightning, you're looking at Creo Auram again, but without requisites.